Educational Goal Setting

Measurable annual goals describe a skill or behavior the IEP team would like the student to learn or improve.  The goals must be measurable and describe what a student can reasonably be expected to learn within 12 months.

When a student reaches the age of 14, IEPs are required to have measurable postsecondary goals as part of planning for the student’s transition to adulthood. With input from the student, these goals state what the student would like to do or achieve after high school. These goals reflect the student’s desires for the future, including employment, education and skills for independent living.  Postsecondary goals, however, may look more vague for a student in middle school and more detailed with specific goals being addressed during high school. As times goes on, changes may need to be made to reflect the student’s changing interests. 

Examples of Postsecondary Goal Areas

• • Vocational training (e.g., learning a trade) 
  • Postsecondary education (e.g., college or other schooling)
  • Jobs and employment
  • Independent living

Writing measurable annual goals (and short-term objectives or benchmarks for students who take alternate assessments) is a major part of the IEP process.  Annual goals are concerned with meeting the needs of a child who requires special education and related services.  The goals are directed towards:

1. Closing the gap between the child’s indicated ability and present level of academic achievement and functional performance.
2. Helping the child to increase in ability.

Annual goals (and short-term objectives or benchmarks) represent how efforts will be directed to address the student’s needs as listed on the IEP.  They focus on reducing the problems which result from the student’s disability and interfere with learning or educational performance.

Types of Educational Goals

Most educational goals fall into one or more of the following areas: 

• Academic – reading, written language, spelling, math, science
• Self-Help – eating, dressing, shopping, traveling, safety, budgeting
• Motor Skills – riding a bike, jumping, handwriting, buttoning and zipping
• Social/Emotional Skills – sharing, making friends, trying new things, smiling, responding to teasing
• Vocational/Pre-vocational Skills – following directions, completing jobs, using tools, making change, appropriate social skills in a job setting
• Behavioral – dealing with aggression, staying on task, following instructions, appropriate classroom conduct,  dealing appropriately with emotions
• Speech/Communication – learning sign language, speech pronunciation, and verbal memory.

Evaluation data is used to determine the areas of need.  Appropriate goals and services on the IEP should lead to an appropriate placement or location where the child’s IEP will be serviced.  After writing the goals and deciding on the needed services, the team should ask, ‘Where can the student best receive these services in the least restrictive setting?

Parents play an important role in this process.  You know your child best!  The picture you paint of your child’s routines at home, daily activities, strengths and weaknesses, will be valuable information to the team and will help them in writing meaningful goals for your child. Your child’s IEP team wants to hear from you and you may wish to address the team with your valuable information. Prepare for the meeting by asking yourself some of the following questions:

• What can my child do and not do now? What is the current level of skill or knowledge?  (This will be stated in the PLAAFP.)
• How is this need of my child related to the child’s disability?
• What do I want my child to know or be able to do at the end of this year?  Is this a reasonable expectation?
• Why can’t my child do this now?   What is it about the disability that interferes with achieving the goal?  What needs to be addressed?
• What would be the starting point for my child?
• Is the goal something that can be measured?  How will we know when the goal has been completed?  Is what we are looking for observable and measurable?
• Do we need intermediate steps such as short term objectives or benchmarks to achieve the goal?  (For the students who take alternate assessments, these are required.)
• If we are using short term objectives or benchmarks, how can they be measured?  Are they clear, observable steps that will advance the student from the PLAAFP to the measurable annual goal?
• School personnel should know how to write appropriate measurable annual goals.  It is not necessarily the responsibility of the parents.  However, having a good understanding of how the process works and what makes a good goal can help parents to be more knowledgeable participants in the process and to monitor the student’s progress.  Parents have every right to expect that the child’s goals will match the child’s needs and be calculated to help the child be successful.